I have a pretty annoying problem with Outlook 2007 SP1. When I
write some text and directly tries to select the text I've
written with the shift and arrow key it will not select the
text. I can easily reproduce the error by doing the following
steps:

1. Open a new mail
2. Tab down to the text area
3. Write "hello"
4. Hit Shift+Left Arrow
If the problem does not appear, then I would first try running
Outlook in Safe mode (WinKey-R, outlook /safe) and see if the
problem still happens.

I also tried to run in safe mode, thanks to your advice, but
it's still the same problem. the letter will not be selected.

Interesting. Have you tried either shift key? Does the cursor
actually move to before the o in the initial example? If you're
in the primary outlook window, click on an email message, and hit
shift-up arrow a few`times, does it select multiple messages?

It's indeed the same with both shift keys. I can also make the
problem appear with other shift+home, so it doesn't seem to be a
hardware issue. As it only appears in outlook and not notepad or
word, it's definetily not a hardware problem.

The cursor does not move when the problem appears. One can
actually classify it as a bug as it does not even move the cursor
when hitting left-key or home-key directly after hitting hello.
The second time I hit shift+left arrow it will sometimes select
the text as it should have done the first time.

I can select multiple messages in the primary outlook window by
hitting shift+up arrow.

Ok, then it's something in the editor window and not the Outlook
window (well, I'll assume you've tried shift-up arrow like you did
in the message window).

Safe mode would mean that it isn't a plug-in causing the error.

What about in a Note? Or in a Contact field? Does it happen
there? Heck, what about in the To field in a New Message?

Does the problem appear in...
* A Note: No
* A contact field, Notes: Yes
* A contact field, Full Name. No
* To field in a mail: No
* A Mail message: Yes (as before)
Ok, shut down Outlook, do a search of the hard drive for
normalemail.dotm (you'll probably need to show hidden files and
folders) and rename it. Try restarting Outlook. If it complains
about the lack of the file, grab the Outlook (or Office) cd and run
the Install and tell it to do a repair.

At this point, it's either the template, or something wrong with the
control.

I'm afraid it's still the same problem. I did this:

Closed outlook
changed the name of the file C:\Users\......\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft
\Templates\normalemail.dotm to C:\Users\....\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft
\Templates\normalemail.dotm.fel
Opened outlook. It did not complain about the missing file, and has
not created a new automatically.
When I try the steps again, it's still the same problem.
I've also tried to turn off the automatic spell checking, but with no
success.

It might sound like a small problem, but it's really annoying. Doesn't
anybody else has this problem? I'm planning on getting a boxing ball
to the office to get rid of the aggression from all annoying problems
=)

If it was a small problem, it'd be fixed. I've not seen the problem. I've
asked others and have seen only vague recollections of similar issues, but
nothing that recent.

So, one stupid question: Have you rebooted this box?

I'm going to assume yes and hurtle on, but, just in case you haven't, do it.

If you go to the Options tab on the Ribbon, does the problem reproduce in
all three formats, Rich Text, HTML and Plain Text?

--
-f.h.